In her latest photo series, ‘3eib’, released last September, Palestinian photographer Sarah Bahbah lets audiences into the deepest, inner-most parts of her soul as she sorts through her traumas and her life experiences, all while reclaiming her Arab heritage. The series consists of 32 self-portraits in Bahbah’s signature text-on-photo style, which mimics subtitled cinematic stills, with pithy one-liners by the artist. Featuring familiar themes from Bahbah’s body of work, such as the emotional complexities of modern love and the millennial experience, ‘3eib’ (Arabic for Shame) is the artist’s most complete and mature project to date as it threads together her story and personal history in her own unfiltered words. This began with her decision to step before her own lens. “Instead of just giving my heart and soul to the world, I’d also be giving my body and my face,” she tells Forbes. “And I had never done that before as an artist.” Bahbah draws on her own experiences of alienation as a woman of color, her childhood traumas and her journey to sobriety and self-love, and delivers an intimate, honest portrayal of a Western Arab millennial woman who is…
In Photos: Sarah Bahbah’s ‘3eib’ Celebrates Female Sexuality and Arab Identity
December 16, 2020
